Call For Projects

Discovery-Based Projects for First Year EE, CE, CS, EET and BE Students

Project Description

IEEE is issuing a call for projects to develop high quality, hands-on discovery-based projects for the benefit of first year students in Electrical Engineering (EE), Computer Engineering (CE), Computer Science (CS), Electrical Engineering Technology (EET) and Biomedical Engineering (BE). These hands-on projects are specifically designed to illustrate real-world contemporary problems whose solutions benefit society; consequently, they make EE, CE, CS, EET and BE significantly more relevant to students and provide them with opportunities to understand how their own future work might help others. Moreover, the projects allow students to discover the importance of these fields in solving contemporary problems, and elicit excitement about creative problem solving.

The projects are designed to be done by teams of first-year students in a week or two of instruction as part of a typical laboratory-based introductory EE, CE, CS, EET and BE course, with approximately 7 to 15 contact hours of total instruction, including lecture and laboratory. The projects are designed by faculty experts in such a way that the underlying complex principles and concepts are made tractable for first-year students.

About the Program

The RWEP program produces a library of real-world contemporary hands-on projects for use by faculty in the first-year curriculum. Incorporating these projects into the first-year courses encourages student learning through participation, increases student retention through satisfaction, and improves student confidence through achievement.

Who is eligible to participate

To be eligible to apply for this program, the lead author must be a faculty member who teaches Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering Technology and/or Biomedical Engineering at a university that grants degrees in EE, CE, CS, EET and/or BE programs. Project Submission
Project Submission is a three-stage process. First, the proposer submits a one-page summary abstract. If accepted after review, the proposer is invited to submit a more detailed project proposal. If the detailed project proposal is accepted after review, the proposer is invited to submit a full project for inclusion in the RWEP project library. After editing and review approval of the full project submittal, the full project is made available to the public through IEEE’s University Education Portal. The rigorous review process ensures that the RWEP is comprised of high quality curricular materials.

Once the full project is approved by the RWEP editorial committee, an award is made to the author. The award includes:

a monetary award of $10,000 USD, contingent upon workshop presentation.
an invitation to present the project at an IEEE-sponsored workshop.
a congratulatory letter.

Stage One: Abstract Submission
A one-page summary abstract that describes the project must be submitted by 31 March, 2011. A proposer may be the lead author on at most one abstract. The abstract must include the following:

Project title
Introduction to the real-world contemporary technical problem solved or illustrated by the project
Problem benefits and solution to society
Description of the hands-on team-based project: what the students will do, what underlying EE, CE, CS, EET and BE principles and concepts they will discover, what problem-solving strategies will be employed and what trade-offs will be observed
One figure that illustrates the problem and its solution
No more than one page, using one-inch margins on all sides and single-spaced text in either Times New Roman 12-point font or Arial 11-point font.
No citation of the proposer's own work (do not in any way indicate his/her identity or the name of his/her institution)
Submitted electronically as a PDF file on or before 31 March 2011

Abstract submissions that do not adhere to the requirements will not be reviewed. View a sample project abstract here.

An abstract is either rejected or invited for a project proposal submission; applicants will be notified via email of the review decision by 1 June 2011.

Download the 2011 RWEP Call for Projects (PDF 50 KB).

7 February 2011
Call for Abstracts: Invitation sent

31 March 2011
Call for Abstracts: Submission deadline

1 June 2011
Invitation to submit a full project proposal sent

31 July 2011
Full Proposal: Submission deadline

15 October 2011
Invitation to submit a final project sent

15 January 2012
Final Projects Submission Deadline

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